A Plea for Help: A Good Mechanic to Handle Gambling

“Aces & Eights” is my current campaign, but there is an issue with the rules. The rule mechanics for the gambling skill and how it works are too cumbersome and really quite annoying.  You cannot fold in a game of poker without having the gambling skill! This forces nearly every player into a situation of either never gambling or taking a skill they do not want for rule-mechanic reasons.  This does not make me happy.

So, I ask you, does anyone have a better way of handling a gambling skill that does not involved actually playing all the hands of poker? It also must handle cheating and the detection of cheating. The cheating mechanic is too complicated to explain, but suffice it to say it does not work well either.

Thoughts?

Trask, The Last Tyromancer

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trask

Trask is a long-time gamer, world traveler and history buff. He hopes that his scribblings will both inform and advance gaming as a hobby.

One thought on “A Plea for Help: A Good Mechanic to Handle Gambling

  • September 7, 2010 at 4:07 pm
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    Go all Burning-Wheely on it. Separate *intent* (win the poker game) from *task* (outbluff, outsmart, outhink, and outguess my opponent). Ask for tests of those tasks, rather than of “gambling” which is pretty silly, really. Grant synergy bonuses or lower difficulties or whatever your system supports for characters who are specifically trained for gambling.

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